On May 5th, 1,107 KSC seniors accepted at least 1,196 degrees, making theirs the largest class in the College’s 103-year history. And the ceremony on Fiske Quad was also the greenest: KSC worked with the company Balfour to provide caps & gowns made of 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. It takes about 23 bottles to make one gown, and that’s 23 removed from the tens of millions that end up in U.S. landfills every day. The graduates could keep their gowns, or return them so the material can be used to make artificial turf.

During Commencement, Mary Ann Kristiansen, local entrepreneur, artisan, and community-builder, received the Granite State Award, and Janet Cohen, humanitarian, researcher, and advocate for the Holocaust and related issues of genocide, tolerance, and diversity, was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. Both women spoke during the ceremony.

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When current Keene State College President Helen Giles-Gee and Provost Mel Netzhammer announced earlier this spring that they would be leaving the College to pursue new professional opportunities, the University System of New Hampshire Board and the Keene State College community immediately took steps to fill those critical leadership positions.

Jay Kahn, current vice president for Finance and Planning, will serve as president for a one-year term, and Melinda Treadwell, current dean of Professional and Graduate Studies, will take over as provost for a two-year term. They will assume their new roles in July 2012 when the positions are vacated. Read more. …

To fill the vacancies that drs. Kahn and Treadwell will leave, the College has selected Karen House, current KSC associate vice president for Finance and Planning, to serve as vice president for Finance and Planning for a one-year term and Wayne Hartz, current associate professor for Safety and Occupational Health Applied Sciences to step into the role of interim dean of Professional and Graduate Studies. Read more. …

KSC has also chosen Dr. Andrew Harris as its new dean of Arts and Humanities. That position became open when Dr. Nona Fienberg decided to step down as dean to focus on her work in the newly formed Holocaust and Genocide Studies department. Dr. Harris will begin his work here on August 1st. Read more about Dr. Harris. …

Keene State College puts a lot of effort into maintaining a sustainable campus. And our efforts don’t go unnoticed. For the third-straight year, the College has been listed in The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges, which profiles higher-education institutions in the United States and Canada that demonstrate distinguished commitments to sustainability in their academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities, and career preparation. KSC also received a silver rating for a recent campus-wide sustainability assessment by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

“Sustainability is a value that Keene State College instills into everything it does as an academic institution,” said Mary Jensen, Keene State College Campus Sustainability Officer. “Faculty, staff, and students all have demonstrated their commitment to sustainability—from Ashuelot River cleanups to student research projects that help inform city governments. The most exciting part is that the College incorporates sustainability in the curriculum, operations, student life, and the College’s mission and values. It is truly a collaborative effort across campus.”

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Assistant Professor of Geography Lara Bryant

Assistant Professor of Geography Lara Bryant has received a $5,500 grant from the Marion & Jasper Whiting Foundation to support her project, “Crossing the Strait of Gibraltar: Exploring the Coexistence and Challenges of Neighboring Cultures.”

Dr. Bryant will attend a two-week seminar in Spain and Morocco offered by the Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE), where she will explore the links between Morocco and Spain on a variety of levels: their cultural and historic heritage, the differences between the “developing” and “developed” world, and the global impacts of terrorism and increasing animosity between historically Muslim and Christian societies.

The students Dr. Ferrucci’s Math 475 – Issues and Trends in Mathematics Education class who wrote the Early Sprouts mathematical activities (standing, left to right): Nicole Conner, Megan DeVita, Alicia Kenney, Stephanie Doiron, Sara Cummings, Marisa Micozzi, Kathryn Granquist, Lindsay Tiddes, Katie Hutchinson, Sarah Ebbighausen, Elisabeth Herber. Seated: Dr. Ferrucci. All these students are part of the BA in Mathematics Education for Elementary Teachers’ Degree Program.

Early Sprouts, KSC’s award-winning effort to instill healthy nutrition and eating habits in preschool age children, recently expanded its initiative to reach children in kindergarten through 6th grade participating in afterschool programs. Dr. Karrie Kalich and Dr. Marjorie Droppa, associate professors of health science, have been working on the after school component for over a year. In the afterschool setting, Early Sprouts continues to focus on nutrition by engaging children in gardening, exploring, and cooking fresh produce. However, a new addition incorporates activities that also foster math, science, and art skills.

Dr. Beverly Ferrucci and her 4th year math students graciously partnered with the Early Sprouts team to create fun and engaging math activities that utilized the Early Sprouts vegetables. For example, children explore the connection between the size of a squash and the number of seeds it contains, determine the volume of a bell pepper by measuring how much water it holds, and calculate the perimeter of a room using green beans.